NORWALK -- In the early 1990s, the East Norwalk community pondered how best to utilize a vacant, former school building on Gregory Boulevard.

Former Mayor Alex Knopp, then chairman of the General Assembly's Housing Committee, remembers the choice came down to two options -- refit the Old Marvin School for senior housing, or build a community center for children.

Ultimately, the city of Norwalk found a way to create both.

"Sometimes you hear of a perfect storm where everything bad happens and the result is nothing gets done," Knopp said. "We had the opposite. We had a great, sunny period in which everything good happened and all the elements that needed to come together did."

On Sunday, The Marvin celebrated its 15th anniversary by inviting more than 200 senior residents, their families and friends, along with elected officials and supporters to recall how this unique intergenerational senior housing and child care initiative came to be.

Pitched as an innovative approach to meet the needs of the young and elderly, The Marvin opened in 1997, offering affordable congregate housing for senior citizens and an accredited school readiness child care program for children ages 3 and 4.

The Marvin has since become a national model for providing affordable housing with services, a nationally accredited child care program, and a unique intergenerational program.

"When this project got launched, well before 15 years ago, it was just an idea," said Bruce R. Becker, president of Becker and Becker Associates, which designed and developed The Marvin.

Becker said that watching The Marvin grow into a caring community for the young and elderly has been a rewarding experience.

"From my perspective, it is probably the most gratifying thing that can happen where you come together with so many people who are so passionate that you end up with a project that is so positive for every segment of the community," he said.